Many types of weapons such as machine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles and other weapons are generally subject to a strong recoil force during use. The recoil is associated with a high level of impulsive acceleration (shocks). The recoil (also known as knockback, kickback, etc) is the backward sharp motion of the firearm following the moment that a bullet leaves the muzzle of the weapon. The recoil of the body of the weapon exactly balances the forward momentum of the bullet and exhaust gasses, according to law of conservation of momentum. The resulting weapon velocity equals the velocity of the bullet times the mass ratio, where the mass of the bullet also includes the mass of propellant gasses Vgun=Vbullet (Mbullet/Mgun). In most small weapons, the momentum is transferred to the ground through the body of the shooter. The body of the weapon experiences a sharp rise in its velocity over a very short time interval. Accordingly the weapon experiences a high acceleration experienced by the body of the weapon. Every component mounted on the weapon (e.g. through an accessory rail) experiences the force equaling its mass times the acceleration. Generally the weapon is made from strong materials which are not damaged by the recoil forces. However in recent years advanced devices have been designed to be added on to weapons to enhance a user's control, for example a thermal weapon sight (TWS) that allows night vision and vision through dust or smoke. The advanced devices are generally mounted on the accessory rail of the weapon and they include optical, electro-optical and electronic components that are sensitive to high level shocks.
A typical thermal weapon sight accepts an image using an infra-red imaging detector for example as manufactured by ULIS from Veurey-Voroize France. The imaging detector is coupled to an infra-red (IR) core that accepts the thermal image from the imaging detector processes the image and provides it for the user to view on a display (e.g. an OLED/LCD display in the TWS). A typical IR-core is manufactured by Opgal from Karmiel Israel.
The imaging detector and IR-core must be protected when assembled in the thermal weapon sight to prevent damage due to the high levels of shocks. The main failures that occur are component breakage and short term fatigue. Following is a list of problems that have been found to occur to the imaging detector and IR-core due to strong shocks:                1. Dead pixels on the weapon sight display. This is the most common failure.        2. Major damage to optical detectors (vacuum damage, microelectronic connection breakage and bonding wear out).        3. Breakage or wear out of electrical components.        4. Breakage or wear out of connections.        
With some IR detectors models the pixel loss is so severe that the thermal weapon sight can become non-functional after being used in a single shooting session. To prevent such a problem some manufactures of IR detectors manufacture more expensive models that are encased in a stronger and more protective metal housing, and manufacture the detectors in a cleaner environments using more costly manufacture processes, instead of the low cost packaging and cost reduced manufacture processes. However this solution does not completely eliminate pixel loss and prevent the problems listed above. Additionally, the IR core would need to be heavily protected.